WBUR Investigations: 2024 Impact

WBUR Investigations works to uncover the "why" behind issues that affect people's lives. WBUR journalists keep the pressure on public leaders to fix the problems, holding them accountable.

Over the past 12 months, WBUR has exposed systemic problems with state-subsidized public housing, special education schools and emergency preparedness at chemical plants in the face of climate change. In each of the investigations, the investigations team revealed new information and concerns to the public by shining a light where others have not.

Our investigative reporting has resulted in significant impact and has received recognition and awards due to its rigor, depth and quality.

Thank you for your support of this vital work.

At the end of our prior reporting period, WBUR published its groundbreaking investigation into vacant state-funded housing units. Housing is one of the key issues for residents of Massachusetts, which has the second highest cost of living in the U.S. Massachusetts is also one of only four states that offer state-subsidized housing — in addition to federal subsidized housing. It's also the largest state-run system in the country.

Correspondent Todd Wallack and Managing Editor of Investigations Christine Willmsen, in collaboration with ProPublica, found nearly 2,300 of 41,500 state-funded housing units were vacant — most for months or even years — despite a housing shortage so severe that it has triggered a state of emergency. WBUR revealed that vacancies were due to several factors: a centralized state waitlist that has made it harder for local housing authorities to screen and vet potential tenants; a $3.2 billion backlog for renovating units for occupancy; and local housing authorities using some housing units for other purposes such as storage, office space and laundry rooms. WBUR found the vacancies translate into millions of state dollars wasted, while at the same time more than 180,000 people linger on a waiting list for this type of housing.

Three days after WBUR and ProPublica published their reporting, the Healey administration said they would begin a "90-day push" to help local housing authorities fill those units. Some localities could get state aid to cover employee overtime costs or to hire other local housing authorities to help them repair units and select tenants. The director of state public housing also said the state would closely monitor local housing authorities with vacancy rates over 10%.

WBUR stayed on the story. In November, they followed up with Deb Libby, who was evicted from her Worcester apartment weeks after WBUR's reporting was published. Libby has been on the waitlist for state-subsidized housing for more than a year. She has put off surgery to remove the pancreatic cancer cells that spread to her liver until she gets stable housing to recuperate. Libby is just one of the 184,000 people on a waitlist for the state's 41,500 subsidized apartments. Units standing empty can mean severe consequences for Libby and others languishing in the opaque line.

As the state's "90-day push" came to a close, WBUR discovered the state was not taking advantage of one of its main tools to push local authorities to fill empty units. Local authorities are supposed to fill units within 60 days, or apply for a waiver explaining why they need more time. If units remain empty for months without a waiver, the state can charge those local housing agencies fines ranging from $3 to $11 per day. More than three-quarters of the vacant units have been unoccupied for at least 60 days, and even though the state levied $1.4 million in fines against 212 agencies from 2019 to 2022, most of those fees were never collected. The state either waived the fines or simply didn't enforce them.

Ultimately, WBUR and ProPublica found that the state barely made a dent in filling the vacancies. By March, the number of vacancies had dropped only by 72 units, leaving thousands still empty. Most of this progress happened during the two months after WBUR asked why the state hadn't made much headway.

Thousands of people are still waiting for state-funded housing. While the overall number of vacancies did decline, the state's promises and goals remain unmet. There's still no clear timeline to reach a new goal the state leaders set: cutting the vacancy rate almost in half. (State officials told local housing authorities about that goal in February, after WBUR asked them about the failure to fill vacancies.)

WBUR recognizes it’s not enough to reveal and call out systemic problems, which is why WBUR stays on the story over the course of years. This level of follow through ensures accountability on those responsible for fixing the system.

WBUR and ProPublica's initial reporting on "Empty Public Housing" received accolades from two national journalism organizations. The radio series was awarded First Place in the 2024 National Headliner Awards from the The Press Club of Atlantic City. The story was also named a semi-finalist for the 2024 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

Meanwhile, another WBUR investigation received a different type of recognition. On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in two Alabama civil forfeiture cases, Culley v. Marshall. By a 6-to-3 vote, the court ruled that while the due-process clause requires a timely forfeiture hearing — the final step for states to get legal ownership of someone's property — it does not require a separate preliminary hearing to determine whether prosecutors or the police could hold on to that property while the forfeiture process is underway.

In the dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited WBUR and ProPublica's investigation as an example of abuses of the civil asset forfeiture system, and the need for a preliminary hearing as a "minimal safeguard" against prosecutors and police wrongfully holding on to people's belongings for years.

Another investigation this year centered around conflicts of interest in special education schools licensed by the commonwealth. The story began with a tip sent to WBUR Investigations. Each month, WBUR Investigations receives dozens of tips — many are investigated more deeply or shared with beat reporters in the newsroom.

In this case, WBUR's reporting found disturbing financial problems while investigating a special education school — which led us to wonder if other special education schools in Massachusetts suffered from the same lack of oversight and accountability. Senior investigative reporter Patrick Madden dove into tax filings, audit records, lawsuits and other public documents of 76 special education schools. Nearly three-quarters of the school awarded contracts and jobs to relatives of school leaders or board members from 2019 to 2023.

The reports raised ethical and management concerns about how these schools operate as well as a lack of transparency and state oversight into hiring and spending decisions. Madden's reporting carefully detailed one school in particular, Broccoli Hall in Sudbury, where the head of school and board president hired her husband and son. The school also hired board members or relatives for jobs on four occasions.

WBUR found auditors had repeatedly flagged undocumented and inappropriate spending and poor financial controls. The investigation also revealed that the state regulators who license the special education schools like Broccoli Hall do not routinely inspect the financial audits of these nonprofits or enforce the audit’s recommendations for corrective action.

ProPublica and WBUR Investigations have collaborated since 2020. Both independent nonprofit newsrooms have long been recognized for high-quality journalism. Their journalists know the importance of digging deeply into important issues to expose wrongdoing. They also understand the power of storytelling: weaving together carefully vetted data, records and research with personal experiences of those directly affected by policies or institutions.

The WBUR and ProPublica projects require months of work: unearthing and analyzing public records, interviewing sources and experts, and contextualizing and verifying the data and interviews. The editors meet regularly to discuss WBUR investigations once the initial fact-finding and interviews are underway.

On the vacant public housing investigation, ProPublica editors collaborated with the WBUR reporting strategy on the original story published in September and a follow up story in March. ProPublica and WBUR worked closely co-editing the written stories and both organizations' lawyers reviewed the final copy. The robust editorial process ensures thorough fact-checking and careful scrutiny of the investigations' findings.

The partnership has also amplified each organization's work to wider audiences. ProPublica has an average of 5.4 million unique visitors each month to its own and third-party platforms, according to its 2023 annual report. WBUR's national broadcasts reach over 6.4 million listeners on average each week.

WBUR Investigations continues to work closely with other journalism organizations to deliver our reporting to more communities. This includes co-publishing WBUR investigations with the Associated Press, MassLive and the Springfield Republican. The partnerships forged last year spread WBUR's findings to Western Massachusetts and outlets across the nation. We also work closely with El Planeta, Boston's Latino daily, to make our reporting available to the region's growing Spanish-speaking population. Making our journalism accessible to more people is critical not only to making substantive change but also to WBUR's mission of fostering understanding and connection.

A core tenet of WBUR Investigations is to share expertise throughout the local newsroom. Investigative journalism requires specific skills to uncover and analyze data and conduct in-depth interviews, sometimes with evasive or hostile subjects. Each person on the investigations team is supporting the newsroom as it broadens and deepens these specific reporting skills.

Over the past year, the team put together a four-part training for the newsroom journalists. The four focus areas were: managing data, tackling tough interviews, searching databases and public records, and using online tools in reporting. The sessions were also recorded and uploaded to a WBUR internal site to ensure more access, especially as new staff join WBUR.

It's important for every reporter, producer and host to know best practices and tips for gathering, organizing and analyzing public records and data. Each will encounter a difficult interview at some point in their career, whether it is a vulnerable person or a powerful leader of a government agency or other organization. WBUR Investigations is helping journalists prepare for those types of interviews before they begin. The team is also hosting office hours for colleagues to come and talk through story ideas, questions or roadblocks in the reporting.

Our investigative journalists are also committed to defending the public's right to access records and information about the government and institutions.

Currently, WBUR, The Boston Globe and NBC 10 are fighting for access to court hearings and documents involving a prostitution ring in Cambridge and Watertown. WBUR does not usually cover prostitution cases. But at the time of the arrests of the alleged brothel operators, federal prosecutors said the sex ring's clientele included politicians, business executives, military officers and people with government security clearances.

WBUR Investigations has revealed that the type of court hearing at play in the case, while typically closed to the public, results in disproportionate outcomes based on whether plaintiffs have the means to hire an attorney, their gender or whether they are the buyer or seller of sex.

WBUR believes the public has the right to know whether everyone in the judicial system is being treated fairly and equally, and believes that these hearings involving the 28 alleged clients should be open to the press and public. WBUR argued its case to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on September 9. The justices are expected to issue a ruling next year.

WBUR has long championed public access to government records. As recently as last year, WBUR successfully gained the release of records involving a police officer accused of sexually assaulting a dispatcher as well as a list of police misconduct investigations in Boston.

This year, award-winning investigative journalist Willoughby Mariano joined the WBUR team. Prior to joining WBUR, Mariano worked at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 14 years. She has received several individual and team honors, including a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, two National Headliner investigative journalism awards and an award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. She was raised near Chicago and graduated from Yale University.

Another addition this year: a nine-month fellowship in partnership with Boston University's Journalism Department and Justice Media Computational Journalism (known as the Justice Media Co-Lab).

Our fellow is Jesús Marrero Suárez, who graduated from BU in May. During his time at BU, he oversaw two data-driven investigative stories at the Justice Media Co-Lab and wrote a story about climate change and racial inequities in Boston. He was an editor at the school's independent student publication, The Daily Free Press, and wrote breaking news stories for The Boston Globe. Raised in Puerto Rico, he is a native Spanish speaker.

Thank you for your support of WBUR's investigative journalism. Our team seeks to reveal systemic problems, report stories of consequence impacting real people in ways that resonate with our audience and hold those in power accountable. This work is resource-intensive and vital to our civic health.